Daily Devotions: Day 3

The Youversion bible ap on my iPhone is where I spend a lot of my devotional time.

It has a wealth of resources at my finger tips. So many various devotional topics, bible versions, social networking, notes, bookmarks etc etc. I find anything I need for my quiet time in one place! What an amazing time we live in. I can be anywhere in the world and have all my notes, bibles, devotionals, spiritual upliftment with me at a touch of a button all in the palm of my hand!

A few weeks ago I decided to go on a fast and deny myself the one thing that I spend most of my time with – my phone. So instead of using it to text, call, check emails, facebook, twitter etc etc I switched it to flight mode to avoid the temptation and used it to read the bible, reflect, take notes and pray. So each time I felt the urge to check my phone, that would be my trigger to read the bible and pray.

My motivation for this was because I had lapsed a little since I’d been back from my holiday where I had managed to establish a routine. In my lowest points in my life, I had noticed that when I had spent the time with God, I felt less troubled, encouraged and hopeful. I had decided I wanted to not only know Him in crisis, but to develop a closeness with Him at ALL times.

I thought…

Imagine if I did this all the time, everyday, put God first?  What would my life be like? What amazing adventures would we have together? What miracles and blessings would I witness? What could God do in my life if I fully allowed Him access to me, knowing Him intimately?

Wow this is deep!!!

It’s been almost 4 weeks since my initial 1 week fast, but that 1 week has revolutionised my time with God.
Now the first thing I do when I wake up, is still to grab my phone, BUT the first ap I open is the bible:)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33 NLT)

Amen xx

A message from God

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds – Psalm 147:3

During my devotional this morning I was praying about what I would write today.  I’ve got tons of stories to tell you, but I’m trusting God to lead me.  This week I have felt inspired to concentrate on the Psalms, so as I was reading Psalm 147, the above verse jumped out at me.  Immediately a memory came back to me about a phone call I had just over a year ago.  The phone call was from a lady from my old church and I could not remember the last time I had seen or spoken to her – it had been a while to say the least.  She said God had told her to call me and give me a Message:

He said He needed me to get into a church because there were some things He wanted to do in me, which He could only do within corporate worship.  He knew I was suffering and hurting and He wanted me to trust Him to heal me.  

On reflection, I now realise that when believers gather together in unity for corporate worship, the is an abundance of faith and this releases Gods flow of healing, breakthrough and miracles!

I hadn’t been to church in months and I had no intention of going anytime soon.  I was angry and hurting, disgusted with church and the so called “Christians.”  I felt downtrodden, let down, mistreated, unloved and discarded. I was sinking into a depression and I knew I needed help because I felt so lost and confused, so it was quite an ‘uh mmmm’ moment for me!!!  Could this really be a word from God?

I didn’t act on this immediately, I decided anything God needed to do or say He could do anywhere – He had just proved that anyway by getting a random woman to call me and give me a message out of the blue!

I didn’t trust anyone and I certainly was not going back to my old church where I was uncomfortable – no way!!  I was so vulnerable, wounded and scarred from a combination of events that had happened, so I just couldn’t bear to put myself through any more unnecessary torture.  No, if God wanted me in church, I wasn’t going anywhere until I was sure that I would be safe.

One of my closest and longest friends invited me to church with her one Sunday and I tagged along because I didn’t have anything else to do, so I thought why not!  It was a beautiful experience.  The worship was soothing and uplifting, it was medicine to my spirit and soul.  The message was real, full of wisdom and inspiring, I felt at ease there and I knew it was somewhere I would come again.  I also bumped into some long lost friends, which was a pleasant surprise, so overall I actually had a good time!  The church was advertising the start of an Alpha course which was due to commence in the New Year (at the time of my visit it was November 2010).  I remembered the message I had received from God from the lady who called, so I figured I would give it a try – what was the worst that could happen?  I was already at rock bottom anyway, so I guessed it wouldn’t do much more harm!

I left the church that day feeling quite hopeful; maybe God was right about me getting back into church?  I would find out…

…look out for part 2 coming soon.

O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me – Psalm 139:1

…God is so good, I asked Him to show me what to write in my blog today and as I got into His word, this blog pretty much wrote itself!  I had no intention of writing my blog this morning (I just wrote my last one a few hours ago in the early hours of the morning!)  In fact MY plan was to develop some of the songs I am working on for my music course I am doing – but God knows best:)  I’m off to get ready for a vocal coaching session- another story I’ll tell you about soon I’m sure:)!

By for now!

xxxx